The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for treating the knives in a tobacco cutting machine, particularly in a machine for shredding tobacco leaf laminae. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for grinding the undulate cutting edges of knives in tobacco shredding and analogous tobacco cutting machines.
It is already known to shread tobacco leaf laminae by resorting to a rotary holder which supports a plurality of elongated knives having undulate cutting edges. Reference may be had to commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 561,177 filed Dec. 14, 1983 by Uwe Elsner. It is also known to grind the cutting edges of such knives by a grinding wheel having a working surface with a profile which is complementary to the outlines of undulate cutting edges. A drawback of presently known methods and apparatus of the above outlined character is that the grinding operation is unsatisfactory because the cutting edges cannot be ground at a frequency which is required to ensure the making of acceptable cuts as well as that the grinding unit occupies too much space and comprises an excessive number of bulky and expensive parts.